Kamuya Ride, vol. 1 comments

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Image from Amazon.co.jp used here for review purposes only.)

Kamuya Ride, vol. 1, Masato Hisa. Grade: A-
Well, just before Jabberwocky 1914 ended, Hisa's newest series, Kamuya Ride, started. Volume 1 came out in October, and again, I never saw it on the new releases shelves. Oddly, it wasn't in with any of the big name publishers. I found it in the "Miscellaneous" section. Looks like it originally ran in Comic Ran Twins, and is published by Ride Co. (maybe Hisa formed his own company).

Kamuya is an oddball story from the start. In effect, thousands of years ago, Japan's founding gods fell from space onto Earth. These are the creatures that form the country's legends, and they are being hunted down and sent back to their original dimension by a mysterious figure who goes by the name Monko, somewhere around 85 AD. Generally, Monko offers little terracota figures he makes (haniwa) to passersby. If the haniwa likes its new owner, everything is fine. Otherwise, they blow up and kill whoever touches them. But, when Monko locates one of the gods, he uses a large haniwa (which he pushes into the ground) to turn into "Gate Sealer Kamuya Ride". Ride will use a facemask beam to burn a keyhole shape into the enemy, and a large key built into the leg of his power armor to lock the god out from this universe, and turn it into another haniwa. (The keyhole may be a reference to Daisen Kofun, a burial mound in Osaka prefecture dating to the 5th century).

One day, Monko encounters two travellers on the road. One is a boy named Ousu (who later becomes Yamato Tekeru) and an unnamed man that turns out to be the villain that keeps opening up the gates letting the gods into this world. Both are given haniwa (although the man refuses one, and Monko slips it into his bag in secret), and they go their separate ways. Ousu is actually leading an army against the castle fortress in Kumamoto, Kyushu, and the monsters there kill off everyone but the boy. The monsters are tsuchigumo (earth-spiders in human form) that were created by the god recently unleashed by the Gate Opener. One of them touches Monko's protective amulet and is destroyed. Monko picks this opportunity to show up, turn into Ride, and defeat the god. Ousu decides to tag along with him on his journeys, and is given a magical bow and arrow set as a reward. Along the way, Ousu starts acquiring the Yamato Tekeru label, which gives him a swelled head. Later, Gate Opener discovers the haniwa in his bags, and it blows up in his face, making him angry.

Eventually, Monko takes Ousu to a big crater lake in the middle of the Japanese jungle to show him a special kind of rock, called Glitter, that can be used to make weapons that work against the tsuchigumo. They get attacked by another god, and Ride seals it off. When the god turns into a haniwa, all of the water in the surrounding lake drains out, revealing a nearly 1 km-long hole in the shape of a human silhouette. This seems to be a clue as to what had hit Earth from space so long ago. Monko and Ousu continue their travels, and run into another god. This one is ocean-based, making it harder for Monko to turn into Ride (because he needs land to activate the Ride haniwa). Ousu tries to become Ride himself to save the day, and gets very frustrated at failing to do so. After the god is defeated, Ousu demands answers, and Monko states that he doesn't have any memories more than one year old, and has no idea how he became Ride (in a dream, he remembers being fed some kind of liquid by some village elders, while he was bound up). Regardless, the Ride power won't work for anyone other than him.

The two continue north, and Ousu discovers that his traitor father is in Izumo, and now he can no longer bring himself to bear the title of Yamato Tekeru until he defeats the old man. The two of them get to Izumo, and are attacked by tsuchigumo, but are saved by someone calling himself Izumo Tekeru (in honor of the hero in the Yamato Tekeru rumors). Izumo Tekeru survived the tsuchigumo attack on Izumo, and when he regained consciousness, he found himself near a wooden sword laced with Glitter (he didn't know about Glitter at the time), and he is currently fighting the tsuchigumo to live up to the Yamato Tekeru legend. This makes Ousu kind of uncomfortable. The next day, the three of them enter the village, and Izumo Tekeru goes to the jail rooms where the remaining village survivors are being held prisoners, to release them. Monko gets to the shrine (a small building on very tall stilts with a long wooden staircase leading up to it - there's a modern museum dedicated to it), and a human head comes bouncing down the stairs. Looks to be that of Ousu's dad. Monko turns into Ride, and the shrine itself becomes the monster god and attacks him. Off in the distance, Gate Opener watches from the hills, asking how "Gate Closer" is going to get out of this jam.

Summary: Ignoring the silly Power Rangers-style armor suit, and futuristic glowy compound bow, this is actually a pretty promising start. There's a lot of (twisted) history here, and great renditions of real haniwa that have been recovered from archeological digs. Plus, there are characters pulled from Japanese mythology. The character designs are solid, and the fight sequences flow fast and smoothly. Even with all the exposition, this is a fast read. Best of all, the book comes with 2 prism trading cards (featuring Monko and Ride), and a glossy postcard-like insert that may be a preview of book 2. I'm looking forward to the next volume. Fun.